In printed French application No. 2,456,175, corresponding to a French application 79 12518 of 10 May 1979 commonly owned with the present application, there is described a system in which solar heating systems can be integrated into a building structures so as to transfer thermal energy to the heatable space therein.
This system combines economically the usual elements of construction with those required for cooperation with a system for the storage and utilization of thermal energy in which a heat carrier such as a liquid is stored in a tank.
In this document, the tanks or storage reservoirs are of cylindrical configuration with vertical axes and are connected in a heating circuit, the tanks forming support piles or foundation elements for the structure.
To ensure a maximum carrying capacity, the cylindrical tanks are generally practically completely filled with the hydraulic fluid which may also constitute the heat carrier.
The heating fluid can be piped from these tanks throughout the building for space heating purposes.
The thermal storage and recovery system described in that publication thus represents an advance over systems in which the several storage tanks are merely parasitic with respect to the building structure and may even contribute a drain upon the foundation requirements and the like.